Rob Farris-Olsen

Practice Areas

• Bankruptcy

• Consumer Rights

• Civil Rights

• Campaign Finance & Ballot Initiatives

• Environmental and Natural Resources

• Personal Injury

Education

• Whitman College, B.A., 2006 - Environmental Studies - Chemistry

• University of Montana School of Law, J.D., with honors, 2011 - Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law

Bar Admissions

• Supreme Court of Montana and District Courts

• U.S. District Court for the District of Montana

• 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

Awards & Honors

• Appellate Lawyer of the Year (2021)

• MontPIRG 40 Leaders for 40 Years

• Trial Lawyer of the Year (2020)

• First Judicial District Pro Bono Award (2014)

• Order of the Barrister for Excellence in Appellate Advocacy (2011)

Publications & Presentations

• Morrow v. Bank of America, and the Further Development of Consumer Law in Montana (with Kim Wilson), James Browning Symposium, Sept. 25, 2020.

• Helping Consumers in Foreclosure in Light of Morrow v. Bank of America, Trial Trends, Apr. 4, 2020.

PARTNER

Rob was born and raised in Helena, Montana. He graduated from the University of Montana School of Law, with honors, in 2011 and a certificate in Natural Resources and Environmental Law. He competed on UM Law’s National Moot Court Team with colleague Scott Peterson, and their team won both first place brief and first place overall for the Northwest Region. Rob individually won best oral advocate. After graduating, he returned to Helena and served as a law clerk to Justice Michael Wheat of the Montana Supreme Court, and worked for Montana Legal Services Association to help Montanans. He joined Morrison, Sherwood, Wilson & Deola in 2013.

In private practice, Rob focuses on protecting Montana consumers and Montanans’ constitutional rights. His consumer practice involves consumer bankruptcies, mortgage and foreclosure issues, improper credit reporting, illegal debt collection and automobile fraud. His civil rights work is dedicated to protecting Montanans from violations of their State and Federal constitutional rights.

Since joining the firm, Rob also started his political career. In 2015, he was elected to the Helena City Commission, where he found a way to fund Helena’s infrastructure needs by fairly charging those entities that use them the most. Three years later, in 2018, Rob was elected to Represent House District 79 in the Montana House of Representatives. In his first term, he co-sponsored the Medicaid Expansion bill, fought to protect Montana survivors of sexual abuse, and joined a bipartisan effort to fund Montana state parks, trails, and aquatic invasive species prevention. In his second term, Rob championed reworking the violent offender registry and ensuring that people with court ordered rehabilitation have their treatment counted as time served.

In his free time, Rob enjoys spending time with his partner Erin, and their two children in Montana’s great outdoors.

Current/Recent Positions

• Awareness Network, Board member, 2019-

• Montana State Representative, HD 79, 2019-2023.

• Member Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission, 2019-2023.

• Helena City Commissioner, 2015-2018

• Board Chair, MontPIRG, 2011

Selected Cases*

• Morrow v. Bank of America (2014) (Amicus Counsel - Established that a bank is subject to the Montana Consumer Protection Act for its loan modification application errors)

• MEA-MFT v. State (2014) (Removed LR-127 from the ballot and protected our election integrity)

• Matter of the Adoption of A.W.S. and K.R.S. (2015) (Established the right to an attorney for an indigent parent in an termination of parenting rights through adoption )

• DiFrancesco v. Fox (2017) (Challenge to constitutionality of suspending driver license based on failure to pay fines)

• Montana City Meats v. State of Montana (2018) ($75,000 settlement for civil rights violations)

• Gersh v. Anglin (2019) (Co-counsel, $14 million judgment against Andrew Anglin & the Daily Stormer)

• Reavis v. Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (2020) (Upholding right of student loan borrowers to sue servicers for misrepresenting/miscalculating borrower payments).

• Commissioner of Political Practices v. Western Tradition Partnership (2020) ($1.76 million default judgment for violations of Montana’s campaign finance laws)

• Burkhart v. Great Falls (2021) ($600,000 wrongful conviction settlement)

*Cases are representative only, and afford no guarantee of future results. Every case is different and must be judged on its own merits.

If you’re looking for Rob’s campaign website, please go www.farris-olsen.com